# What Code Is This Twitter User Using? What Is She Saying? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 13, 2009, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-code-is-this-twitter-user-using-what-is-she-saying/496287 "2009-05-13T14:15:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Here\_Come\_Dots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cc9497/32.png) [@Here\_Come\_Dots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Here_Come_Dots)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-code-is-this-twitter-user-using-what-is-she-saying/496287/1 "2009-05-13T14:15:33Z")
[One of the people I follow on Twitter](http://twitter.com/3outof4) started tweeting occasionally in some sort of code, and I haven’t had any luck getting my followers to help me crack it. Her latest post was this morning: “Guvf vf pyhr 1 bhg bs 4: uggc://gvalhey.pbz/pmzimm.” It looks like there’s a URL—and she’s posted similar tweets before. I tweeted her directly asking, “@3outof4 is that supposed to be a URL?” and got the unhelpful reply, “@HereComeDots Gung’f sbe zr gb xabj naq lbh gb svaq bhg.” This is killing me. Can anyone one help. Please? ---
**Author:** ![J\_Cubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@J\_Cubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_Cubed)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-code-is-this-twitter-user-using-what-is-she-saying/496287/2 "2009-05-13T14:23:57Z")
That would be, more properly: “@UrerPbzrQbgf Gung’f sbe zr gb xabj naq lbh gb svaq bhg.” But then you might not have seen it. ---
**Author:** ![SiouxChief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@SiouxChief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiouxChief)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-code-is-this-twitter-user-using-what-is-she-saying/496287/3 "2009-05-13T14:30:05Z")
It’s a ROT13 cypher. Cut & paste the text into this web site: [http://rot13.com](http://rot13.com) Basically it shifts each letter 13 positions through the alphabet, so if you do it twice you get back to the original letters. Her original post translates to: This is clue 1 out of 4: [Google Maps](http://tinyurl.com/czmvzz) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-code-is-this-twitter-user-using-what-is-she-saying/496287/4 "2009-05-13T14:32:39Z")
Have you tried a simple replacement cipher? You can start by replacing “uggc” with “http” and see if anything happens. Are you sure this is a person? My first reaction would be this is some kind of spambot. ---
**Author:** ![Here\_Come\_Dots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cc9497/32.png) [@Here\_Come\_Dots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Here_Come_Dots)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-code-is-this-twitter-user-using-what-is-she-saying/496287/5 "2009-05-13T14:37:07Z")
> [@SiouxChief](#): > > It’s a ROT13 cypher. That explains her [ROT13 tattoo](http://twitter.com/account/profile_image/3outof4?hreflang=en). [QUOTE= acsenray] Are you sure this is a person? My first reaction would be this is some kind of spambot. [/QUOTE] She’s definitely not a spambot. Most of her tweets are normal posts like everyone else on Twitter. ---
**Author:** ![Spit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-code-is-this-twitter-user-using-what-is-she-saying/496287/6 "2009-05-13T18:29:03Z")
That _was_ a hilarious thread from the URL, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-code-is-this-twitter-user-using-what-is-she-saying/496287/7 "2009-05-13T18:49:21Z")
ROT13 is finding new life? Interesting. It was a standard thing on usenet. The purpose wasn’t to be hard to decipher, BTW - quite the opposite. It was used to present spoilers or swear words that you didn’t want the reader to see without being warned. Most newsreaders had ROT13 built in, and it was quite deliberate that ROT13’ing twice yielded the original text. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-code-is-this-twitter-user-using-what-is-she-saying/496287/8 "2009-05-13T20:26:10Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > ROT13 is finding new life? > > Interesting. It was a standard thing on usenet. The purpose wasn’t to be hard to decipher, BTW - quite the opposite. It was used to present spoilers or swear words that you didn’t want the reader to see without being warned. Most newsreaders had ROT13 built in, and it was quite deliberate that ROT13’ing twice yielded the original text. If ROT13 is secure, ROT26 is twice as secure!